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by byesweetheart (ConstantComment)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Awkward Hinata, Awkward Kissing, Confessions, Crushes, Crying, Embarrassment, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Feelings, First Kiss, Fluff, Foiled Confessions, Friendship/Love, Happy Ending, High School, Hinata is confused, Holding Hands, Hurt feelings, Insecurity, Kageyama thinks no-one likes him, Karasuno, Kissing, Kokuhaku, Light Angst, Like-like, Love Confessions, M/M, Misunderstandings, Sad with a Happy Ending, Second year, Skipping Class, Spoiler Alert: DUMPLINGS, boys crying, hinakage, insecure kageyama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-24 20:24:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10749150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConstantComment/pseuds/byesweetheart
Summary: Just before last period, he’d pulled the piece of paper out of his trouser pocket—the one that he’d nearly scribbled and erased and scribbled down to pulpy nothing, the one he’d read and reread so much that the blue lines across it were fading at the edges from his restless thumbs (the one that he’d nearly thrown in the wash the other night)—and held it in his hands as he walked up to Kageyama in front of the sciences building.





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**Author's Note:**

> I had the most horrible idea for a kagehina scene so now you all have to suffer with me. Ψ(｀◇´)Ψ

Hinata found him behind their gym. His uniform jacket was stuck to the prickly cinderblocks half-way up his back like he’d leaned and slid down into the grass instead of sitting on the ground in the first place, like he couldn’t bother with normal human actions and just melted down the side of the wall out of spite or something. His messenger bag lay upturned and half-way gutted over the green ground in front of him, with his shoe dangerously close to the crime scene. It looked like he’d kicked it himself in anger.

Hinata bit his lip, wringing his hands as he stepped around the corner and approached Kageyama. 

He’d planned it all out, researched the best ways to go about it and the best poems—even read some in Japanese  _and_  English to see which language would sound cooler in the moment—and the best day in the week to do it. He’d talked to Yachi about it, and then Noya, who were both more in touch with this kind of stuff (especially compared to him). He’d thought about how tired they would be just after lunch versus at the end of the day (he couldn’t do it in the morning, because what if it went terribly wrong and Hinata would have to go to school with him  _all day_  instead of being able to escape at any point—best to avoid unnecessary embarrassment if he was rejected). He hadn’t anticipated this, though.

Just before last period, he’d pulled the piece of paper out of his trouser pocket—the one that he’d nearly scribbled and erased and scribbled down to pulpy nothing, the one he’d read and reread so much that the blue lines across it were fading at the edges from his restless thumbs (the one that he’d nearly thrown in the wash the other night)—and held it in his hands as he walked up to Kageyama in front of the sciences building. As usual, the volleyball team tended to gravitate toward each other during any sort of between-class downtime, so Tanaka, Ennoshita, Yamaguchi, Yachi and a couple of the first-years were all sprawled or leaning or loitering on the lawn with Kageyama, who sipped at his box of milk through a straw and slouched in the shade of a scraggly tree, listening to another one of Tanaka’s stories. 

“Hey, Kageyama,” Hinata had nearly squeaked, jogging up to him and bringing story time to a stumbling halt, mostly because Tanaka was easily distracted.

What had followed was a long and bumbling string of words, and half of a love poem, recited to the soundtrack of the Karasuno volleyball team’s laughter. Hinata had spent so long reading (or avoiding looking up at Kageyama after that first time seeing the faint smile transform his face when he’d arrived) that he didn’t notice Kageyama’s stricken expression until he glanced up halfway through a stanza. The others’ laughter had seemed to kick up again, and Hinata had smiled a little, unsure, and a giggle had bubbled out of his chest. 

“What’s your problem?” Kageyama had asked, his voice flat.

Hinata had blinked, and looked at the rest of the team, their faces in various states of shock and excitement. “What do you mean—”

Kageyama had cut him off. “Why would you— What kind of joke is this?”

“C’mon, Kageyama!” one of the guys called. “Don’t be a spoilsport!”

Hinata blinked again. “I’m confessing to you,” he said, but another nervous giggle spilled from his lips before he could stop it.

Kageyama’s face did some sort of… twitch, and then he was throwing his milk to the ground with a roll of his eyes. “Fuck off, Hinata,” he’d said, and strode away like someone was chasing him.

His teammates had hooted with laughter and called after their setter as Hinata stared at Kageyama’s retreating back, wondering what he had missed. He had peered down at the crinkly notebook paper in his hands, too much in shock to feel anything else. He’d spent so much time on the actual event that he hadn’t thought about the possible outcomes. And he certainly hadn’t entertained the idea that Kageyama would be angry with him for it!

Hinata’s heart sank to his shoes. Did Kageyama really find him that gross? Was the idea of Hinata’s crush on him that disgusting?

He had looked imploringly at Yachi, who shrugged with a sad smile in her seat on the grass, before he spotted Noya who seemed to have materialized somewhere between Hinata’s ‘Hey, Kageyama’ and now. Noya had shaken his head slightly, and then tilted his chin toward the retreating figure storming across campus.

And so, Hinata had followed him, even though the knot nestled in his throat felt like a million-pound weight dragging him down.

Now, Hinata bit his lip—which was really getting a thorough thrashing with how nervous he was—and stepped closer to Kageyama’s crumpled shape on the back side of the building where every day they’d run and train and try to make each other better. Right now it felt extra ironic.

When he was close enough, he saw that Kageyama’s face was as ruddy as his posture was hunched. His eyes looked almost puffy, his cheeks blotchy red, and when Hinata got within ten feet of him, Kageyama raised his hand and jammed the heel of one palm against his eye.

“Hi,” Hinata said, small.

Kageyama startled, brows knitting together when he saw who had interrupted the silence of his hideout. He swiped a couple more times at his eyes and nose before leveling a short-lived glare at Hinata, and then turning his gaze to the grass in front of him, climbing up a slight hill to the edge of campus where they’d hopped the barrier fence several times since first year, to get up to no good.

Conflicted, Hinata shuffled closer. He… he was hurt, but… he really didn’t want Kageyama to hate him. They’d made it so far since the early days. On a good day, Hinata could’ve said they were great friends with at least a modicum of confidence.

“What— what’s gotten into you?” Hinata asked, managing somehow to turn his indignation into something resembling sympathy by the end of his question. 

“When I said fuck off, the idea was that you’d go as far away from me as  _possible_ , dumbass!” He didn’t sound too adamant though, the way he curled in on himself and kept smashing his palm against his eye sockets like his eyeballs were gonna fall out of his head.

Hinata folded his arms to avoid shaking in embarrassment. “Seriously, Kageyama! What’s your problem? I was just—”

“They were laughing,” said Kageyama. His voice wobbled when he continued, “You laughed at me.”

Hinata shook his head. What was he talking about? 

“Why’s that a joke to you?” Kageyama continued, seemed to fill up with steam with each word that came out of his frowning lips. “‘Kageyama’s just a robot with no feelings. He only cares about volleyball! He couldn’t possibly…’” at this, his snide tone broke down a little. His voice filled up with water. “‘Let’s pretend that someone  _actually likes_  him! Wouldn’t that be hilarious?’”

_Oh._

Hinata stepped closer, knees almost falling out from under him in his haste to kneel beside Kageyama, who was  _crying_.

“Kageyama,” Hinata croaked. “Kageyama.”

“God, why can’t I stop—” Kageyama grumbled, but it came out a little whiney. He his his face in his hands and, after several moments, Hinata realized he didn’t plan on coming out of hiding. “Please go away,” he said, quiet, when Hinata just hovered awkwardly.

“Kageyama, people were laughing because I was being embarrassing and I can’t recite poems. And it was a surprise! Like ha-ha, this is crazy, not ha-ha, it’s a big joke,” Hinata finally said. “I’m—I wasn’t joking.”

“Hinata—” Kageyama growled.

“No, I’m serious!” he shuffled closer on his knees until he could reach out and touch Kageyama’s shoulder. His fingers brushed over his rumpled jacket and down his arm, tentatively grasping his wrist and pulling it away from his face. Kageyama stubbornly stared at his lap. “I… I like you. And not in a friend-way. Or, I mean, I like you in a friend-way but I spent a week working up to telling you that I like-like you. In a… in a not-friend way. Ugh!” Hinata pulled at his hair. He was screwing this up royally!

At this, Kageyama turned to him. He was still frowning, though.

“Here, please listen—” Hinata shoved his hand in his pocket and pulled out the terribly mistreated piece of paper, accidentally tearing it in his haste to unfold it. He looked up at Kageyama once more, who looked kind of dumb and soggy looking at him like he was, and cleared his throat while he smoothed out the paper over his knees. “I’ll skip the rest of the poem, but. Just listen:

“I really like you,” he began a little stumblingly. “I like being your friend. Uhm… I like teasing you. I like making nick-names for you. And sometimes I even like fighting with you, because I know we’ll be o-okay. I like that you’re smart but you’re as bad at school as I am. I like that we take lots of classes together and get to go to lunch at the same time. And I like that you like volleyball as much as me. And I like that you weirdly like milk and yogurt maybe even more than volleyball. But mostly I like that you help make me a better teammate and like, an awesome spiker.” Hinata paused, took a steadying breath when he didn’t hear anything. He couldn’t look up at him yet.

“And I like that you’ll race me to volleyball practice, or walk partway home with me, and you’ll buy me meat buns in the winter and popsicles in the summer. Even if I forget to pay you back. And I like that you put up with me even if you pretend you won’t.” He stopped again. He knew what the next part was (he’d rewritten it plenty of times). Hinata tried to swallow his embarrassment, feeling his heartbeat pick up like he was about to try something risky on the court. Somehow this was scarier just the two of them than with their friends around. It felt more… significant. 

“I like how tall you are,” he continued with a gulp. “And I like how you’re super good at sports even if you’re not as fast as I am. You’re really strong. I like that your eyes are actually really, really dark blue, not black. I like how soft and shiny your hair is. I like when you smile. Even the creepy ones that make people think you’re gonna kill ‘em. Your face is nice no matter what.”

Kageyama’s breath blew out of his nose in a quiet huff, but Hinata plowed on.

“But, I really like when  _I_  make you smile. Basically, there’s a whole lot I like about being around you. And I don’t get tired of being around you, ever. I really, really like you…” He looked up finally, seeing Kageyama’s shocked face. “I hope you like me back.”

Kageyama’s eyes were wide, and yes, a tiny bit blue, and he looked… better than he had when Hinata had found him, but it was still up in the air whether Hinata would be swallowed up by the ground before he got rejected again.

Instead, though, Kageyama lunged toward him.

Their teeth clacked together when their mouths collided, because Kageyama  _was trying to kiss him_.

“Ow!” Hinata shouted, fingers coming up to rub at his mouth as Kageyama cringed away for a second. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Kageyama said, a little panicked, and leaned in more slowly when Hinata just looked at him with wide eyes.

This time, shaky lips pressed lightly to Hinata’s, soft and plush. Hinata’s heart leapt into his throat at the feeling. His eyes fluttered closed.

They weren’t all that good at this kissing thing, not really sure what to do other than press in and nibble a little. But it felt nice. Hinata’s stomach felt squirmy and his skin felt buzzy when Kageyama’s fingers brushed up his arm. He brought his own hands up to Kageyama’s chest, closing his fists around the lapels of Kageyama’s jacket. He could taste salt on Kageyama’s lips.

When they pulled away, Kageyama looked as dazed as Hinata felt. When their eyes met, a small, rare smile tugged at the corner of Kageyama’s lips before he bit them, nervous.

“I like you back,” he mumbled, face blotchy again (but, thankfully, this time it wasn’t from crying). 

“Uwaaaaah,” Hinata said, quiet and amazed. “Really?”

Kageyama sat up a little, dislodging Hinata’s hands from his clothes. “I just kissed you,” he replied.

Hinata threw his hands up at that. “I dunno! Maybe you were kissing me  _goodbye forever!_  ‘Talk to you never, shrimp-nerd!’”

“Shut up. I couldn’t do that to you,” Kageyama said with a shake of his head. He pulled one of Hinata’s fluttering hands out of the air and closed it in his own. “Sorry I ran away,” he mumbled after a moment.

Hinata suddenly felt the need to clutch at his chest. 

“I just thought the person I liked was… making a joke out of me.”

“I’m sorry I made you think that,” Hinata said. “I’m sorry I made you cry!”

“We’re never speaking about that, ever.” Kageyama licked his lips and continued, “Anyway, I’m glad I was wrong.”

Hinata blushed, thinking about kissing him again. About how he could convince him to do it more, and for longer. “Hey,” he said, brushing a thumb over Kageyama’s skin. “Let’s skip the rest of class.”

Kageyama found his phone with his other hand and checked the time. “Well,” he said, “we’re already 17 minutes late, so might as well.” His voice sounded non-committal, but Hinata could hear the undertone of indulgence in it.

“What should we do?” Hinata asked, shyly peering down at their joined hands.

Kageyama leaned his shoulder into Hinata’s. He was a wall of warmth against Hinata’s arm as he squeezed Hinata’s fingers. “…Wanna get dumplings?” he asked.

Hinata lit up at that. “Did I tell you I really, really like you?” he exclaimed.

Kageyama stood and helped him stand before stuffing his things in his bag one-handed (since he hadn’t let go of Hinata’s hand). “You might’ve mentioned it,” he replied with a shy shrug.

Hinata couldn’t stop grinning the rest of the day.

 

**Author's Note:**

> (˃̥̥ω˂̥̥̥)
> 
> Thank you for reading! Come say hi on [Tumblr](http://byesweetheart.tumblr.com/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/byesweetheart_)!


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